Fiona Bruce ‘to step back’ from her role at Refuge

‘Stepping back’ invariably means ‘given the boot’

So she should. Her comment was inexcusable.

What a sad loss to the refuge...at the hands / mouth of a wife beater, I doubt he will care.

Why? What did she say? I haven’t heard about this before.

She definitely should. No-one should trivialise domestic abuse.

Sha said Stanley only broke his wife's nose once- that it was a 'one off' - on Question Time- in a way that sounded like 'it's not too bad then, just the once'.

She didn't trivialise it, read the report.

It sounded as though she was trivialising it though. She just repeated a bit of hearsay that was trivialising the incident. I don't think she should be an ambassador for Refuge if she is not willing to make it absolutely clear that she does not regard something as serious as a broken nose as just a one off.

She said SJ hadn't commented and that friends of his have said it did happen and it was a one off. As far as I'm aware, she never said he'd only broken his ex wife's nose.

I heard her say it. She was reporting what others had said but I personally felt her intonation was jarring as it didn't seem to separate the hearsay from the facts. He may have only broken her nose once - but it sounded minimising to me.

I'm sure that wasn't her intention but it definitely made me "sit up".
Not good.

Ilovecheese sorry, I am repeating what you said - I went away mid sentence and didn't check to see what had been said meantime.
Apologies

She may have spoken in haste because she was endeavouring to put the matter in context and SJ was not present to give his side. Refuge has lost a valuable friend due to overreaction.

Bridie22

She didn't trivialise it, read the report.

I heard her say it- and I listened twice more. She probably didn't mean to, but it sounded as if she was excusing him.

Fiona Bruce is right wing and shows it every week .BBC impartiality is a myth .They should not allow presenter in political programmes to show their bias ...and sadly she's not the only BBC person who fronts a show that is clearly right wing .
Strange they get away with it when Lineker didn't yet HE'S freelance and not in a political show

With luck, this story will put paid to the nonsense of Johnson nominating his ghastly father for a knighthood. I fail to see why a man who was sacked forced to resign should be able to nominate anyone in the ironically named resignation honours list.

There is a pattern here, from Lineker, to Tory donor being selected for DG at BBC to Fiona Bruce stepping down from Refuge, and it all involves Boris bloody Johnson, he of the reverse Midas touch.

I have a Hollies ear worm now .

I think that FB should 'stand down'. TBH, I think she should stand down from QT too - she's not very good, and her political bias comes through often. She could continue to present Antiques Roadshow and similar programmes where her views are not important, but she shouldn't be asked to chair a discussion of Lineker's comment (or any other political debates).

Are we really going to slate a woman who for 25 years has campaigned for and supported the women's refuge, a refuge needed by women the likes of SJ wife!!
Maybe her tone wasn't perfect ... another of Johnson victims.

I think that this comment is highly pertinent:

"We know at Women's Aid that domestic abuse is rarely, if ever, a 'one-off', with the vast majority of abuse being a pattern of behaviour," said chief executive Farah Nazeer.

FB, as an ambassador for Refuge, would have understood this. Her comment about Stanley Johnson was careless.

I believe she had no option but to make the comment she did in the circumstances, to head off a possible defamation case. Presenters often have to interject like this when someone makes a comment to the effect that something that has been rumoured and speculated on is a proven fact. And before anyone leaps on me, I know exactly what has been said about SJ. I have no reason to doubt his wife’s claim but it rests purely on what was told to journalists. I dislike Stanley Johnson and Fiona Bruce, but she had a professional duty to perform. It’s a shame that she is stepping down from Refuge after many years of good work for them.

According to her biographer, Johnson's late wife suffered years of mental abuse, violence, coercive behaviour, the nose breaking may have 'only happened once' but as professional involved in domestic violence are aware, these incidents are rarely solitary.

GSM, how could there be a defamation case if the alleged incident did happen? Boris has said that he witnessed it, Rachel has said that their father was a proponent of 'muscular fatherhood'. In a sink estate, he would be a drunken wife beater whose children were afraid of him.

I agree it is sad that Fiona Bruce has felt she had to resign, but credit to her for doing so with an element of dignity and showing due respect to the charity which she was involved with

I havent seen Johnson junior say he witnessed it?

houseplantqueen I have also read that it was years of abuse by Stanly Johnson not a one off at all…. ‘muscular fatherhood’
I ve never heard that expression presumably she means ruled with an ‘iron fist’ literally
He certainly comes across as a womaniser the way he cuddles up to that young Toff girl (or whatever her name may be)
Oh yuk yuk yuk

westendgirl

So she should. Her comment was inexcusable.

Why? What did she say?